The sporting spectacle over the next 11 days will be like nothing the British
public has ever seen before. It may change people’s lives. It will
definitely change the way we view each other.

The Paralympics are about elite sport and extraordinary athletes pushing the boundaries, but they are really also about people. Remarkable people, who have gone to amazing lengths and often overcome great adversity to reach London. We will witness inspirational human feats.

I competed in two Games for GB in wheelchair basketball; I use a wheelchair. I also grew up as a disabled kid in Plaistow, which is why I have a grin as wide as East London right now.

That smile will spread across the nation. I’m the most competitive son of a gun you’ll ever meet. But the Games changed me too — because of the people I met, witnessed, and grew to love.

Just as the nation marvelled over the lives of our Olympic heroes so we will be with our Paralympians. Yet their stories are even more compelling with an extra dimension that really does give the Games the ability to transform opinions.

First you will look at the athletes for their impairments –some will have been born with them, some have been involved in accidents, others have had their lives changed by illness or disease. Then you watch them perform.

One of the first British competitors in action, cyclist Darren Kenny, won four gold medals in Beijing. He suffered two head injuries — one accident as a junior tour cyclist and then, a few years later, working as a milkman, he tripped over a black cat one morning and ended up on his head again, in a pool of milk.

That’s what life sometimes offers up. The Paralympics have shown so many of us what we can, and can’t, control. Yet what can never be taken away from anyone is what we can achieve with what we have. That’s key in Paralympic thinking.

Two head injuries have not stopped Kenny from becoming one of the greatest cyclists on earth. His drive and focus within the team is legendary and he may well win Paralympic GB’s first gold today.

Lee Pearson, the equestrian rider whose limbs were contorted at birth, a mass of scar tissue, has gone on to become majesty itself on his horse, Gentleman, winning nine gold medals; look out for Matt Stutzman, the American archery ace who has no arms but uses his feet to fire his bow.

Look anywhere. Go to the track. Tatyana McFadden, an American wheelchair athlete, dedicated, powerful and just beginning to get into her peak years. Yet she was born in Russia just over 20 years ago with a hole in her spine and was left to die in a Russian orphanage. Aged six months, she was adopted by an American businesswoman, and is now celebrated by her adopted country.

A great star is rising in British single amputee Jonnie Peacock, who had meningitis as a child and faced death, but came through it to be 19 and challenging for the 100m title in the blue riband event in front of a home crowd.

The man he is chasing is amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius, born with no bones in his lower limbs. These people make you sit up, on the edge of your seat. They are simply remarkable human beings. As remarkable as any Olympian.

Go to the road cycling at Brands Hatch. There you will find Alex Zanardi, the 45-year-old former Formula One driver, who had his legs amputated after a horrific racing accident in 2001. Doctors told his family he couldn’t survive.

He did. He went back to compete in a specially adapted touring car, but not content with that, he wanted to taste Paralympic glory, and has trained and qualified as a hand cyclist.

Then there is Martine Wright, GB’s sitting volleyball player, who had both her legs amputated when she was caught up in the 7/7 bombings, the day after London won the bid to host the Games. She is an inspirational figure, and her delight at being selected for the team warmed the hearts of everyone in the Paralympics GB team.

These stories will be mirrored and echoed time and again across the Olympic Park.

For many, growing up with a disability requires the kind of work on your physique that belongs on an Olympic, elite sport training programme.

The athletes out there have sacrificed everything to get there. Early mornings, late nights, graft, sweat and tears. Bodies aching and sometimes ravaged by a disease or condition. Cerebral palsy athletes are hugely affected by exhaustion levels. They are all pushing the boundaries to get here. It’s not just a sporting festival.

They are elite sports people, and this means everything to them. This is their big moment as much as it was for the Olympians. A false start, a mistake, not following a game plan could cost competitors at these Games their lifetime’s dream.

For Great Britain, our guys have to perform. They have to go out there and show this is our big, big moment. They can’t back off. They can’t be shy. They’ve got to go out there looking to break world records. They’ve got to go out there and show their personalities.

This is the coming out party for the Paralympics. It’s a time to show their emotions and show off. Be loud and proud. They have every reason to do so — because the standard of the sport will excite and amaze people.